Ten Never Happeneds’ of Ace Lightning
by Scarabbug
Summary: There are certain things that never happened in Ace Lightning, and There’s probably a Very Good Reason for them all. Ten ficlet crossovers. Various genres.
1. On The Hellmouth

**Standard disclaimers apply. The writer would also like to announce that this is not her fault. **

There are certain things that never happened in Ace Lightning, and there's probably a very good reason for them all. Ten ficlet crossovers with various fandoms. Various genres. Mostly humour.

* * *

On The Hellmouth. 

She was pretty certain she _didn't _know how to do this. It was hardly on the top of the school curriculum, after all and college was all she used to think about, these days. Until _she_ showed up on her doorstop.

Karate taught her a lot of things. An awful lot of things. Mostly about breaking stuff and how to _avoid_ being broken yourself, but… staking? Through the _heart_? That definitely wasn't one of them. Not that these things had blood, _per se_ (and not that she couldn't handle it perfectly well if they did), but… Ew.

Watching it crumble away into a pile of dirty ashes on the floor… even _more_ Ew.

Still. Better dead than going for her throat. Better dead than going for anything _else_.

'Welcome to the big league little girl,' the slayer muttered, replacing the stake in a disturbing well designed belt and wiping a smudge of grime away from an otherwise unmarked cheek. 'If you don't get them, they'll get you. Well, usually _after_ they've taken out a few innocent bystanders, that is. You know how they love to piss us off.'

She sounded like she was talking about an out of date fashion accessory, or… or the world's most boring lecturer. But before she could ponder her companion's possible insanity, she felt something being pressed into her hand. It took her only a moment to realise that it was sharp. And made of wood.

'Here endeth the lesson numero uno. Kill _them_ first. Don't forget to study that one. There's gonna be a quiz at the end of the week.'

Heather opens her mouth to point out that mixing Pig Latin with Spanish was so _completely_ grammatically wrong it almost made her nose bleed (if it weren't already bleeding anyway)…

Only the words wouldn't _quite_ come out right.

* * *

**Buffy TVS crossover, in case you're wondering...**


	2. On The Moon

**Standard disclaimers apply. **

**There are certain things that never happened in Ace Lightning, and There's probably a very good reason for them all. Ten ficlet crossovers with various fandoms. Various genres.**

* * *

On the Moon. 

The first (well, second) thing that popped into Mark's head when Kat quite literally appeared out of nowhere in his bedroom and gave him an explanation that shoved things like "_Lord Fear's taking over the world again, but don't worry I'll be back for dinner_" into a completely different, less important category was, actually, more like something Chuck would come out with:

'_They're actually still calling that one a _planet_?' _

It… it was _new_, really. Not the weirdest thing he's ever seen in his life but… definitely _new_.

And it was… pink.

He didn't think he'd ever seen Kat in pink before. Or in a skirt that short. Or with so many _bows_. And he was sure as hell he'd never seen her with hair somehow reaching well past her…

'Um. Mark?'

She was fumbling with the hairclip tucked behind her right ear and Mark kept staring at it, though that was mostly just a ploy to distract him from looking at that huge bow located on her… chest section or the fact that the skirt is a lot shorter than it is wide. She took the clip out and, interestingly (regrettably, Mark thought) she didn't change back to the way she usually looked the second she did so. He didn't even want to _ask_ about the very strange black cat currently curled up contentedly on his bed or the fact that Kat entered the room by passing through the _wall_ or the fact that he's pretty sure heels that high should be banned from use in public and…

'It only turns off when I tell it to,' she shrugged. 'But… I think it's connected to this. Lu said—'

'_Kat_…' The tone of his voice warns her heavily not to mention the cat. Anything but the cat. If it opened its mouth and started _talking_ again Mark swore he was going to have a fit.

'Sorry. Just… This thing, um. Why don't you… hang onto it for me? 'You know. Till I need it.'

'_Kat_…' Mark repeated, being not entirely certain why.

'Mark, _please._' Kat shook her head, hair swinging and Mark could've sworn that was _glitter_ sparkling…

There was just a hint of desperation in her voice. Or maybe it was embarrassment. _'In that skirt it's kind of hard to tel— Oh, God, Mark, _stop it_ already. Fancy sailor outfit. On girlfriend. This is a _bad_ thing, get it? Bad, bad, _bad

'…_Kind of…'_

Kat smiled, slightly. 'This is weird enough as it is, okay? So… so do me a big favour and don't _ask_ any questions. Or wait up for me. Or tell my parents.' She adds that last one with perhaps a touch more force than she meant to. 'Yeah, definitely don't tell my parents. They'd totally _kill_ me for wearing this outfit,' she swallowed. 'I probably won't know how to explain it and… please?'

Mark gulped. Cursed his ill fortune, and reached out to take the delicate, gold and pink hair clip from Katherine Adams's hand.

The black cat on the bed started purring and Mark resisted the sudden and somewhat out of character urge to kick it out of the window.

* * *

**_Sailor Moon_, for those who didn't guess and fard, that one was _fun_.**


	3. On a Mind Crush

**There are certain things that never happened in Ace Lightning, and There's probably a very good reason for them all. Ten ficlet crossovers with various fandoms. Various genres. Standard disclaimers apply. **

* * *

On a Mind Crush.

_He hears four words in the back of some distant and probably not-oft-used corner of his pretty-damn substantial intellect, but he can't quite place what those two words_ are

_All he knows is that this boy showed up again. Asked for Rick to give _the card_ back (screw that for logic. It's worth way more in Rick's bank account even if he has to screw with the brains of countless obsessive, Japanese teenagers and technology-stealing buisnessmen to reap the rewards). _

_And_ then _when Rick quit attempting to persuade him of his innocence (because the kid was obviously not entirely dense, for a tourist, and didn't seem to be falling for it) he just said no. Then the boy had demanded that Rick give it back._ Demanded_ it._ 'Like a foreign brat has the same legal rights as I do. Fat chance. The kid probably couldn't even get a lawyer. Especially not over a missing card.'

_And it's not like _stealing_ is usually Rick's forte. Too crude. Too obvious. Too much like how the old fantasy RPG bad guys used to get it done and Rick's not_ quite _ready to entirely buy into that stereotype (unlike most of those RPG games he still likes to think he has a tad of originality in his methods. Besides stealing from humans was a lot more risky than messing with the brains of fictional models of augmented reality)._

_This time was different, though. This time it was some stupid, yet incredibly important sheet of ink on card that was only worth something to a bunch of priority-confused teenagers. And to Rick._

_Holographic technology is his _speciality_, after all. He knows he _needs_ that dragon for his own means a whole lot more than some kid does. _

_He said as much. And then the boy got pissed. And then the boy changed. _

_And now there are miles and miles stretched out on either side of him, and all he can see of it is wires. Wires and coding and perhaps just a little bit of virus eating away at the edges of his skin. Only he doesn't_ have _skin. No end, no beginning, no_ nothing _but the cold and the wires and the software._

_The software he's_ _becoming. And the virus that's devouring him. And the green light that probably used to be his eyes and fuck only knows where the rest of him used to be but now it's spread out across god-knows-how-many-miles of coding because space and distance don't even_ exist _in here, do they?_

_This is definitely_ not_ like being in The Sixth Dimension because the sixth dimension is nothing anyway. It's all just _messages_ and _signals_ and _nothing_ made to look like _something_. Electricity made to look like life…_

_The irony of that hits him at the same time the static does. It's ripping him to pieces even though there's nothing left to rip. Because he's not… he's not real, now, is he? Just screens and mirrors and signals and and and and and_

'You wanted to rule over it? Then why don't you try being a _part_ of it, Richard Hummel?'

_And in the back of his mind the boy is talking to him. In the back of his mind, the boy is promising to make him pay. What? What is he expecting, a check made out, payable in yen? He's just thinking about how crazy and absurd that is and what a pompous brat this teenager sounds like and then…_

_And then Rick remembers what two of the words the boy said to him before were. He remembers the word "_penalty_". He remembers the word "_obsession_". _

_And all at once Rick also remembers that he doesn't have a body any longer. He's all curled up on the floor of the shack, but he's not really _there.

_And he was going to start screaming now.

* * *

_

'You know dude, you're really okay,' a voice says to him. There's a hand on his shoulder and Mark lifts his head up for a second to find out whose it is (Chuck's), then lowers it again. Chuck's saying it to convince himself as much as anything and Mark's… not in the mood to reassure anyone.

'Yeah. I know.'

"They're all fine, really. Perfectly fine." That's what the other girl is saying. She's standing there and smiling for God-knows-what-reason and talking to the boy with blond hair who's supposed to be Japanese (Mark really has to work on remembering their names even if they're a little tricky to pronounce) and…

And she's smiling.

How the hell can anyone be _smiling _at a time like this?

In fact, now that he looks, _Sparx_ is smiling too. Laughing. Like this is all perfectly _normal _for them. Like they're _all_ normal and the really amazing thing is that they're not freaking out about _her_, either, because they've seen it all before. Mark starts wondering for about just where along the line Rick Hummel's work on _Ace Lightning_ is connected with the Japanese technology that's slowly turning _Duel Monsters_ into a worldwide sensation.

'So… so just for the record, we're currently in one of those… those as-normal-as-our-lives-ever-get phases, right?' Mark mumbled around his bottom lip.

Chuck shrugs his shoulder. 'Pretty much. 'Sides from the fact that we've got the whole damn stereotype of Japanese culture here,' Chuck shrugged, smiling just a little reluctantly. 'Dude, I tell you, the next thing we know _Godzilla's_ gonna show up.'

He sits down in the chair besides Mark and looks over at where Ace is having some kind of glaring match with the student in the trench coat. Trench Coat guy is winning. He has one of those faces that reminds Mark of Heather on a bad day, only three times as serious and three times as likely to hurt you really badly if you annoyed him. Which, when compared with Heather, was really something.

He really hopes Ace looks away soon. He's getting just a little bit tired of people being hurt today. Especially when it looks like it's his fault.

Not his fault this time, though. To hell if _he_ ever saw this coming.

'Just,' Chuck starts. 'Just explain this to me again, okay, man? Just one more time, nice and slow. I tried getting the little guy to explain and all but… you know, really, I'm not sure _he_ knows what he…' Chuck swallows. 'What he _did_, either. So just tell me once more because you're about the only head in the room that's not on the shoulder's of a crazy guy, if you get my meaning.' Mark gives him a vaguely-amused-if-still-freaked-beyond-belief glance. 'There's more than one of him. I get that. And they only have one body between them –I understand that too. Kinda. But…' his voice trails off with a sort-of chuckle and Mark lifts his head from his hands again.

'Well I guess that there's the very short kid over there with the really weird eyes,' he mumbles. 'He's the exchange student who all the girls seemed to dote on when he arrived at class this morning and who actually ate those hamburgers they had on at lunchtime.'

'Yeah,' Chuck nods. 'Think I know _that_ him. Same kid who tripped and fell more times than me in Phys-ed, right?'

'That's the one.'

'Gotcha. Okay. Now, uh, what about the other one? The _mo hiroto ne…_ _whatever_?'

'That one,' Mark says, just as slowly and carefully. 'That one is…'

Yugi looks at him.

It's kind of like he hears them, really, even though Mark knows he probably can't. Not from over there. It feels like he's being probed, or something, without the other boy really _meaning_ to, but doing it all the same. Like he sees and hears everything that's happening around him no matter how minor it might be. Maybe even _trusts_ everything.

And after all, the annoying voice in Mark's subconscious (the voice that he likes to call "Heather") says to him, didn't you tell _him_ about all of this in the first place? Didn't you share a secret? Didn't Yugi put his hand on his heart and promise that he wouldn't tell another soul "_so long as you can keep a secret too, right?" _Okay, so it'd kind of been an accident, but...

Mark still doesn't quite know what to think about those _eyes_.

Yugi is smiling. Not the same smile as he had back in the computer shack, though. _That_ smile had been more like a smirk. Mark remembers Yugi's reassurances from earlier and wants so much to believe him.

'_It's okay. It… we won't get_ hurt_. Not now, it's just… I think this is part of the game. It's always part of the_ game_ and… and we have to leave now, Mark, we _really_ have to leave.' _

So they left.

And Rick stayed behind them, screaming his lungs out on the computer shack floor and swiping at monsters that weren't there.

'Penalty game: obsession,' Mark whispers under his breath, trying desperately to make the words mean something.

And Yugi was there.

And he's _still_ here now, only… only he's _not_, because that smile's not the smile of the Yugi he met in the Computer Shack and it's not exactly the one he met in class first thing this morning, either. Mark feels so confused he actually wants to go ask Ace to hit him. Maybe then he'll wake up and things will go back to their usual less-than-normal-state and Rick won't be bawling on the computer shack floor.

And the only explanation he can think of for anything right now is that either Yugi is completely and totally out of his mind or Mark is. Or Rick. Or all of them. Probably all of them. Yeah.

Shit.

'Uh… Mark, man?'

Mark swallows and imagines Yugi's eyes turning as red as someone's blood. 'I… have no idea who that one is. But whatever you do, Chuck, _please_ don't piss him off.'

* * *

**YuGiOh – Early manga… for arguments sake, let's say it's set after manga number five, but before number six. **


	4. On The Edge of the World

**Standard disclaimer apply. There are certain things that never happened in Ace Lightning, and There's probably a very good reason for them all. Ten ficlet crossovers with various fandoms. Various genres.**

* * *

On The Edge of the World. 

She knows they're doing the right thing and that's always been good enough for her.

Well. That and the blowing things up. She can't help that, and why should she? Those robot things _suck_ at close combat. Seriously, the things must've been designed _way_ before the world ended. She likes to fight. Sometimes by pure condensed energy, or her sword, if she can get the change, she likes the way it feels in her grip, and there's no changing that.

It's fun, defeating their enemies. More fun still to take in their traitors.

She knows the Sphere. She trusts the sphere. She doesn't understand how things came to this.

'Think about it. Please. That's all I ask, just a moment to think..'

She doesn't _want_ to think about it, so she won't. Big deal. They always say she never thinks enough but she likes to call that one of her strengths. This girl… this traitor in front of her. she's the one thinking too much, trying to get out of this. Sparx won't let her. Not now. Not again. Not ever.

'I will beg if I have to. I know you don't much like it…' Sparx's grip tightens on her sword. 'But… you need to think.

'Your name was Amandine, wasn't it? I used to know you, Ammy. Before I joined the Sphere. Don't you remember?'

She remembers.

'Shut up. Leave him there already it's not like it even matters anymore.'

The traitor's fists clench tightly. 'He's my son,' she repeats, forcefully.

…And since when did Pirates care about things like blood?

The Sphere has always been Sparx's blood.

It's anger that drove her out here today. On her own, away from her group. But she figures she'll get away with it if she only brings back the traitor. If she shows them that she did it for the Sphere. For the good guys. For justice.

The woman before her continues with her silent vigil. It's like she doesn't care that Sparx is there.

Sparx is burning. She admired her. Respected her. Trusted her. Looked up to her.

Anger makes the blue shine brighter than ever.

'I could defeat you,' the woman says, calmly raising her hand in front of her face. Looks as if she's got the point. Finally. 'Please don't make me.'

Sparx's hands are burning.

She charges.

* * *

**Skyland Crossover. **


	5. On Rememberance

**You know about the disclaim. There are certain things that never happened in Ace Lightning, and There's probably a very good reason for them all. Ten ficlet crossovers with various fandoms. Various genres.

* * *

**

On Remembrance. 

'Do you remember anything of what you dreamed about, yet?'

Fifth or sixth time she's asked him that today. He still can't be completely truthful with her about it. 'Meh…Maybe a little bit.'

It's a lie. They probably know that. But… he needs a name. He can't spend any more time here without a name. It's confusing people when they don't know what to call him.

Her face is a kind of funny blur and nothing much else, really. Though he can still usually make out when she's smiling and see the rusty brown colour of her hair and the faded charcoal grey of her wings.

Maybe he needs glasses or something, he thinks absently. Maybe he used to use them wherever he came from and now he really, really needs them again. He's tired of not being able to see. He's fed up of not being able to remember…

…Anything.

Whoa. Wait a second.

Something glimmers in the back of his brain.

'Wait…' he mutters, and she tenses just a little bit. 'A boy,' he murmured. 'There's… I think I might've dreamed about a boy. Like me, only not.'

'That's something,' she perks up considerably hearing this, sitting herself besides him and gently. He tries to imitate the movement. It doesn't work very well. 'What was he like?'

'I'm not really sure… Kind of heroic like,' he grinned. 'Some kinda fight going on. He was there. I think he was scared but…' He can't think of what to say after "but", so he lets the sentence trail off vaguely into nowhere. The sun is starting to set on the other side of the hills.

'There's a name I know… Mark,' she said, smiling at him warmly. 'And… and that means "hero" I think. Or maybe it means something to do with War. I don't know, really, but…' There's a pause while he ponders it and something…

Something feels _right_ about it. 'I think we should call you that, if that's okay with you.'

'Cool. Works for me, man.'

It takes him another half an hour to explain to her the meaning of that term, even though he can't be sure exactly where it came from.

* * *

**Habane Renmei. **


	6. On a Cusp

'**Nother crossover here. Standard disclaimers apply. Standard cookies for those who guess the series before the end.

* * *

**

On A Cusp.

'I am _so_ embarrassed…'

Embarrassed, Sam thinks immediately after she's said it, is totally the wrong choice of word. Her hands are still shaking and the boy is still holding them in both of his. She curled up in the chair the second she got back to the flat and hasn't moved much since. Just trying to make _sense_ of things…

She has no idea where Mark has gone. Not far, she hopes. This is a foreign country after all. They don't know their way around there. 'I should probably e out there with him,' she thinks without quite understanding where the strange sense of needing to protect him has come from. Maybe it's something she's always had, but she really doesn't think so…

'So you've said half a dozen times.' He smiles at her. Again. Like it doesn't really matter that she just panicked really badly and nearly put one of those impressive new claws of hers right through his windpipe. It the kind of smile that makes her melt, a little, in a way only one or two other people have ever made her melt before.

But then, he _is_ a star, right?

'It's okay. It's happened before. I'm not really a stranger to girls jumping out on me.'

There's no pride or anything in his voice as he says it. Actually now _he_ seems to be the one embarrassed. Like they throw themselves at him and he doesn't quite understand why –and yet at the same time, he does. It's a confusing awareness that she's never had with anyone else before and Samantha starts to think that there really is something _special_ about this boy.

'Mark…?'

'He's alright, really, he's just…' he smiled again. 'Well I guess you could say he's yours now. Or you're his. It's probably more equal than that but I don't think I ever worked it out exactly.'

'I think it works both ways,' the red girl grins at him cheekily. 'You're quite sure you're alright, senior?'

'Yes, but I hate when you do that,' he says up at her, gently. 'You know you don't have to…'

'Rather us than you, Senior Kyouta,' the girl all wrapped up in shining blue light answers, talking so quietly you'd never think it'd only been a few seconds since she sliced violently through a humanoid figure like it was made out of paper. Like it hasn't been seconds since Sam nearly did the very same thing (the boy still has cuts across his cheek as nobody has tried to fix them yet) Sam tries not to let that frighten her.

The red fades away now, and the girl lands lightly on the tiled floor, armour and plastic fading into her skin, like it's melting into it. the other girl does the same and… there they are. Two normal girls, smiling and bright and not too long out of high school.

Enough with the _melting_ already. 'I want to see Mark. I think… I need to see him.' _What if it happens again? What if I change again? What if he's the only one who can stop me?_

'I don't think he made you _stop_,' the boy says again, and Sam realises that either she must've stated that aloud without realising it, or he's also a mind reader. 'Not so much as he… he _implored_ to you too. The connections between the mind breakers and the Awakened girls depends entirely on the relationship between them as people. I've known some horrible ones,' he frowns firmly – which is even more dreamy than his smile, by the way and Sam curses herself for being like that at such a bad time. 'I understand a little. He seems like me. I don't think he'd force it on you, but… it's _strange_, being a Mindbreaker. Sometimes you can't be quite certain how strongly you're coming on. But you're very powerful, so he had to be very powerful in response rather than controlling you outright. Believe it or not, that's a good sign. For him and for you..'

'And… and it's only boys?' she swallowed. 'Only boys who can… do that?'

'I think so.'

Well, this goes against all the lessons of social equality Sam has ever heard.

'Now you listen here, sweetie,' the red girl says, calmly. 'He doesn't have to make you do _anything_ you don't wanna. You know that right? It's just that we…'

She pauses, and the blue girl finishes for her. '…Prefer to…

'…For Senior Kyouta. Yes. He's just important that way.'

'But… but I'm _not_ important,' She says it before she can stop herself. Hugging her arms around herself, dreading the feeling of claws and teeth and scales erupting from her skin, eyelids peeling away, hair disintegrating into what felt very much like tangled bone.

'You think too little of yourself,' the boy –they called him _Senior_, didn't they? Sam's grasp of Japanese isn't that great but she thinks she knows what that term means enough to know it doesn't really apply to her, but she uses it anyway. 'You're still just a human girl, remember that. you can just… do thinks a little differently to most. You don't have to be in some invisible war you don't want to.'

War? Oh, God. Sam doesn't want to know anything about a war! She didn't even do all that well in her old school's debate club.

'Plus, I think you're far too pretty to be a Darklore,' the red girl pats her shoulder and sighs, 'but that's the way it goes, I guess. It's up to you and him now… what was your name, again?'

'Sam…Samantha…'

'Sam-en-tah…' she tests the word with a foreign tongue. 'Pretty. Anyway, like I said, it's all up to you. But you're very much a part of each other now. Make sure to tell him when he comes back.'

'Tell him what?' Sam asks, bemused.

'How much you care about him, of course. But Senior Kyouta will tell him all about the mind breaker thing, don't worry.'

Senior Kyouta nods at her again. 'That's true. We'll make certain he knows he's never to harm you.'

But… Mark would never hurt her anyway, Sam thinks. She opens her mouth to say this aloud, but something else comes out instead. '…Senior Kyouta, what… what did we… that is why…' What did I do? Where am I? What's going on? What did I just become and how do I stop it happening again?

She seems to know already, though, that she can never stop it.

The boy sits down besides her, moving slowly so as not to jolt the chair.

'…Let me explain a little about the Darklore. Then maybe things will make a little more sense.'

* * *

**Aquarian Age: Sign for Evolution. Aquarian? On the cusp? You know? Oh, whatever. (I really _have_ to draw Darklore!Sam sooner or later…). **


	7. On the Rocks of Gibraltar

**New crossover. Standard disclaimers apply. Pure AU.

* * *

**

On the Rocks of Gibraltar. 

The replacement arm works surprisingly well, really, given all the shortcuts they've has to take in getting it into the country – smuggling pieces in through various food packages and shipping containers, several pieces were lost when a third shipment went down in the middle of the sea but, despite all that, the limb still functions. Mostly.

It'll function _better_ once he's gotten used to it and it's partly mesmerising in a way because it's been such a long while since he saw metal so clear and clean and free of rust, The fact that it is still replacing the once flesh of his once right arm, however, is something Random just can't seem to work around. Just like he can't work around the fact that he swears he can still feel pain in an arm that doesn't exist

'I'm surprised they didn't charge you extra for this.'

Wayne lifts his head from his chest when he hears that, gazing at Random firmly from his usual place on the staircase and grinning. 'If they had _tried_ I would've removed their body parts piece by piece for em, you know.'

'I'm _sure_ you would have human,' there's not so much sarcasm in Random's voice as he says it so much as there is a weary reluctance to argue. Having mechanical limbs substituted hurts like hell without decent aesthetic, and the best they can get around here is a bad concoction of weak chloroform and alcohol, both of which Random is rather resistant to. The replacement has taken a lot out of him but it'll all be worth it, or so Heather had told him through her cigarette, when the nerve impulses began to kick in and he gained total control over his shiny, new (well, almost new), mechanical arm.

'The way you say that,' Wayne snorts, pushing his hat away from his forehead and gazing at Random firmly over the smoky haze of the bar. (Random resolves once again to make Heather stop facilitating her own poisoning with those disgusting sticks of compressed nicotine. The more twisted part of his brain tells him he should just force them all down her throat in one go. _That'd_ stop her breathing it all over them.

Random ignores it. As usual.) '...Anyone would think you weren't human yourself,' Wayne goes on, scowling.

'I'm a freak who keeps vagabonds and knifers away from the bar area, aren't I? Always thought that was what you appreciated in me.'

'Well we sure as hell don't appreciate your tendency to go stark raving crazy on _us _from time to time, metal boy,' Heather says, without looking up from her translation. She's been working on that strange, old book for well over a year now, but has never really made any progress. She's smart enough to attach a fake arm and not kill the patient she's doing it to, certainly. But understanding the language of the dead world before them is something quite different.

'We're _all_ freaks, man,' Wayne said. 'That's what living out here does to you, right? Like blind boy over there and poison girl over there.' He points to each person in turn, and finishes with his gaze fixed on Random's right arm. 'And me. Lets not get started on me, okay? I don't wanna have to bust some heads.'

'_Blind boy_ isn't actually deaf too, you know,' Mark mutters irritably and now it's Wayne's turn to do the ignoring. Mark just shrugs and goes back to not-actually-_looking_ out of the window and Random goes back to watching him and wondering, vaguely, how the kid manages. The same way he often wonders how any of them manage, especially late at night when everyone's asleep and tossing and turning over one nightmare or another.

In Random's dreams it's always black, because the darkness is all he can remember. He knows that what Mark sees is exactly the same. Not that he's ever know otherwise. There's an understanding there, in as strange sense of the word.

'Deaf? Nah. he's not _deaf_, but he sure does a good impersonation of an Ecoban camera filter.'

'...Huh?'

_'Sure_ you're really blind there, boyo? 'Cause I _know_ what window your eyes are fixed lookin' at of and it ain't the general store.'

'Oh, bite me.'

A laugh. 'For real?'

'Oh shut up, the both of you.'

It's a deficit, in one respect, but Random knows better than to toss the kid out because of it. If anyone approaches the building who isn't supposed to be there, mark will now about it instantly because of how his other senses work. And so long as they know that…

Mark doesn't understand colour, or impressions or appearance, Random knows this. He understands _sound_.

It's still a million times better than being _Wayne_, when you think about it.

_Anything_ is better than being Wayne. Except possibly being Random.

Mark can understand one thing about the world as the other freaks see it, though, and that is that it's terrible. Terrible, yes, but with something underneath it. Something a few of them have _heard_ of but never dared to dream about.

He told Random one day. Very quietly when they were waiting to raid a titanium shipment, coming in from the western coat, the day before Random lost his arm.

''_They called it _sky blue_, didn't they?' _

'_What?'_

'_The sky. before the smog and the rain. Heather told me they said it was_ blue_: the colour, I think... like the walls of Ecoban late at night. Or something like that.'_ _He shrugged, carefully so as not to uncover their position to anyone who might be watching. 'Not that I'd know what blue is or anything, but… I would I think. If I saw it. And it's always blue in_ Gibraltar_, apparently.' _

_Random's eyes rolled before he could stop them. 'I_ wish _you'd stop reading Heather's bloody translations, you know that, kid?'_

'_I don't _ask _her to blind-language-script them, you know._ _Not much to _read_ anyway, I really think those are the only words she's ever really managed to get out of it. Gibraltar, sky blue and something about a giant rock. That's it. All she's ever managed to make out of it.'_

'_If it's even a real word at all,' Random muttered to himself. _

'_Yeah. If.' _

Sky blue.

Random had had a friend, once, with eyes that very colour. At least they _said_ it was that colour. He doesn't quite want to admit to Mark that, otherwise, he has no idea what _sky blue_ looks like, either. None of them do. All they know is smog and smoke and grey and brown. And metal. Definitely metal. Random tests the clenching mechanism of his new "hand", carefully flexing the newly connected joints and sinew muscle.

Wayne's right, of course. There's none of them that are _really_ normal. The freaks that were exiled from Ecoban. Unwanted. No, not unwanted, Random corrected himself. Wanted for their iron will and power and their ability to pull ropes in acid rains. Freaks, in truth, because that was what Ecoban had _made_ them.

Ecoban has made _him_ as cold as the metal that makes up for the lost flesh and bone of his once right hand. And Ecoban knows and cares nothing for Gibraltar, or the Diggers, those that live in the acid rain and mutate slowly to their deaths with every passing day.

The people in Ecoban don't _care_ about them and friends with bright blue eyes, much like ancient languages, are really better left forgotten.

He doesn't know, then, why _he_ insists on remembering. And why Mark insists on _reminding_ him. And why Heather insists on continuing that translation which she's never going to solve and which has no real purpose anyway.

It's been a long time since Random believed in places like Gibraltar.

Mostly.

When Random reaches outwards his still-there left arm, a twinge trembles in the shoulder of the other one, reaching down the length of his arm, and heather looks up from her crumpled book pages, smirking.

'Feel that, then, did you, 'borg?' she asked.

'I think I did,' he answered, quietly.

Over in the window, Mark is grinning an all-too familiar grin, which Random pretends not to notice.

* * *

**Crossed with the Korean anime, "Blue Sky". **


	8. On the Burn

**New crossover. Standard disclaims. **

**

* * *

**

On the Burn.

She's biting her lip harder than she's ever bitten before – and coming from a woman with her particular background that's definitely saying something rather significant – as she opens the door to the locker room. Perhaps because she's not entirely certain what it is she's going to see.

Rio has no sense of control. There is no doubting this for a second. Isn't something she knew from the second she hired the girl and she highly doubts this is going to be rectified inside of the female changing quarters. The newcomer, however…

Fights like Rio.

With any luck she doesn't respond to cash flow or clothing issues in exactly the same way.

'So what, every single one of those girls was really a guy? You're kidding me right?'

Rio is laughing, grinning and draping her arms around the red heads shoulders. The red head, for her part, looks simultaneously bemused and intrigued by the… could they possibly be actual _case notes_ she's holding in her hand? Clothes are, as predicted, scattered around a large percentile of the room. Very little on the officers themselves. Which is understandable, of course. It _is_ a changing room.

Work? From Team warrior? From _Rio_? It's more than a little surprising; she has to admire her continued ability to feel shocked by her colleagues' actions.

'You've been livin' under a rock for the last twenty years or something, sure they're weird and all and pet names… urgh, don't get me STARTED on the pet names girl, I tell you,' Rio bounds away from the red head with the usual muster. It's a far enough bound for Maki to make a size comparison and realise that, if not Rio, then Nanvel, at least, has certainly met her match. She thinks back to the videos of the first battle. The shards of metal that obscured the screen and the blue shards of light bursting from one weapon after another. It had already earned her a nickname. Sparx, they called her. and they would probably be calling her that for the rest of her days. 'If they give you a pet name: run. Run for the freaking hills, because they can't damn well tell. Seriously, do _these_ look _fake_ to you? Well _do they_?'

'…Nah, not really.'

'See??? This is what I keep telling everybody!'

The red head shrugs, curling arms around her knees in something that's less modesty and more about avoiding the onslaught of clothing, notes and various food stuffs being thrown from Rio's locker. 'Back in my old work place it was… mostly guys. And dress codes. _Strict_ dress codes. Seriously. Nothing out of place. Not even a button.'

'You an army girl or something? Maki said it was something like that. Real military like.'

'You could say that.'

'Why'd ya leave then?' Rio mutters. 'I hear the pay check for those deals is way sweeter than anything you get in Central Neo Tokyo, anyways.'

'…Maybe I figured that all of that stuff really just wasn't for me, you know?'

Rio shrugs and ducks into her locker looking for a shirt which Maki can see lying on the other side of the room. She continues to wait and watch in silence.

'Just one guy here anyway. Lecher. Hit him as often and as violently as you deem necessary and he'll probably get the message. One of these days. And if you brought any big guns with ya, Maya wants to see em. Seriously.'

The red heads ears perk. '…Lightning Rods?'

'Bottom shelf. In between the bazooka magazines and the WB-Forty-stuff. but she doesn't let ya touch them, those are _her_ babies.'

'Cool. I can appreciate that. Another girl's weaponry is serious stuff.'

'You got that right, girl.'

Maki coughs.

The gesture is timed to absolute perfection.

Rio's response is left perfectly timed, but then again unless it's being used in the process of enemy decapitation or the devouring of a rather large portion of ramen and or sushi, it usually is a little off. And the newcomer's is even more off, with them both leaping to attention. It feels more like a bizarre parody of an army manoeuvre and she recalled, vaguely, how old relatives would mention that when the sergeant said "stand to attention" you stood to attention and bowed, regardless of now much clothing you were – or were not – wearing at the time. Neither Rio nor Sparx would apparently have ever had difficulty with such a disciplined demand. It was the rest of the army's idea of discipline they'd probably have struggled with.

She can't see Sparx in the army, no matter how she tries to.

'This is a mission right. It's got to be a mission?' Rio, as usual has her eye on the ball (or rather on the pay check.) 'I'm serious, Maki. I don't have lunch money here!'

'Your last pay check went in three days about.'

'Introducing newcomers to all the delightful sights and sounds of our great Neo Tokyo city takes a lot of credit, ma'am.' Rio says in a voice full of composure.

Sparx gives her a look and is trying not to snigger.

'I see.' Maki decides to leave it at that as she hands over the paper. 'I assure you, this time, no underwear thieves.'

'Underwear thieves?' Sparx blinks. 'Whoa, man this town is freaky.'

'You don't know the half of it sister,' Rio canned the paper, grinning and bouncing. Rapidly. 'And bring it. This one looks like armaments are involved. Come on lets go break into Maya's weapons cabinet and see if we can break out a bazooka.'

'Uh. Sure. Works for me.'

And then almost instant they are gone from the room, returning only briefly to actually _obtain_ their uniforms. Just as well, really, Maki thought as she turned around and returned quite calmly to her office. It was awfully cold out on the streets at this time of the year,

A Warrior.

Maki has no doubt whatsoever that Sparx is going to fit in here.

And she isn't biting her lip any longer.

* * *

**Burn Up: Excess crossover with Ace Lightning. **


	9. Two Appropriately Named Individuals

**Standard disclaimers apply, as per usual. Crossover's exact identification comes at the end of the story. **

* * *

Robin is talking.

And Impulse isn't listening. Which, in itself, is nothing new.

The fact that he isn't listening because he's too busy concentrating on _something else (_which isn't a videogame or a TV screen), however, is just a little weirder.

'So. You're saying the Boom-tube… thingy up and dumped this chick in the speed _force_… and Impulse pulled her out again?'

'Before she could be compounded into pure energy, yes.' Robin barely looks up from the console in order to cast his gaze at Kon. 'Basically, that's what happened. They had some difficulty due to compatibility – turned out she wasn't quite as fast as the speed force _wanted_ her to be, hence the rather large tear-marks going right through Metropolis right now –and by the way _you're_ talking to Superman about that. But that's definitely where she came from. Getting her back is going to be the hard thing. I'm fairly sure she ended up there by accident probably as the result of some kind of power shock.'

Superboy opens his mouth to protest –because, heck, he has nothing to do with the skid marks going right through Metropolis and no way is he taking the rap for this – but the actual protest never emerges. He's too busy looking at the newcomer. And, meanwhile, Bart…

Well, Bart is still looking at the newcomer too, who, as it happens, is staring right back at him with her arms folded and a freaked out, vaguely familiar look on her face. The only thing she doesn't seem too confused about is the fact that Robin's got a _scan_ on her.

And… yeah, just wow.

'…So, anyway. Hi.'

She blinks. Her eyes widen just a bit in what must be recognition. Recognition of a _sort_, anyway. The kind of recognition you get looking at the old mug shot of a minor interdimensional bank robbing alien whom you haven't seen in three years or so. 'Um…Hey.' She mumbles, and Impulse's hand goes for his hair and rubs. Rapidly. 'Long time, no see?'

'Longer for me,' Impulse says. 'Speed force time. It's weird, though, so I guess it depends.'

Superboy casts a glance between them. 'So am I… missing something, here?'

'I dunno, where'd you see it last?' her quip comes out of nowhere and sounds _so much_ like something Kon would say that the boy in question chokes a little on pure air. Robin, for his part, doesn't so much as twitch.

'So, Imp, huh?' she's got her eyebrows raised and a grin on her face that reminds Kon of the Flash. 'That what they call you round these parts?'

'It's Impulse,' Bart says, trying to do the whole I'm-a-hero-my-name-should-imspire-fear-in-the-evil-and-joy-in-the-innocent-so-don't-_laugh_-damnit face. The newcomer seems no more weirded out than before.

'Sure. That makes sense. Didn't exactly expect to see you again, but then portals can be freaky like that. You never know where they're gonna dump you next. Anyway the name's Sparx.'

Impulse nods rapidly, thus increasing the confusion of pretty much everyone else in the room. 'I know. You told me, remember?'

And now Impulse is starting to freak Superboy out ever so slightly… because he hasn't _moved_ from the spot for going on twenty-five seconds now, for one thing. Nor has he descended into random speed-freaking around the cave for another. In fact, the only movement he makes is one quick step towards the newcomer, who, in turn, steps back towards him. They're right up close to each other and… she's not quite as tall as she seemed on the Platform, but Impulse still has to look _up_ at her a bit.

It takes all Superboy's willpower not to whistle.

'Man, Rob, whoever this chick is, the speedforce's pretty much got her name on it.'

'It's not a _chick_, Superboy,' Robin said, evenly. 'It might _look_ like one, but it's not, I'm…' he paused, and takes a while to actually admit it: 'I'm not actually that sure _what_ it is… it's designed to be _female_, but it's _not_. It's not really anything. Just a bunch of coding.'

'So… so you think maybe the speedforce made her? Maybe Bart's got some weird psychic thing goin' on with it, like when he makes those scouts.'

'Negative, Superboy. I don't think the _speedforce_ made her; I don't think she was even _meant_ to be in there. It probably just acted as an unintentional conduit.' Robin leaned back in his chair, shaking his head ever so slightly. 'I don't know _how_ she got here at all.'

'Oh, that's easy,' Impulse quips. 'She got here by lightning bolt, didn't ya, Sparx? You rode the lightning just like I did.'

'Yeah I… guess… if that's the only thing I could've done I guess I really must've done it. The portals must've been screwed up, though. I'm pretty sure I'm not _supposed_ to be here. My friends will be waiting for me and… you know, my friends are big on timing. I don't think they'd be too happy if I was late 'cause I got caught up with you kids. No offence..'

'We'll try and do something about that.' Rob says, obviously not making any promises and… what's as he the only one in this room _not_ looking at her because she's hot?

And are those freckles? He digs the freckles.

But anyway -wow. Something Robin _doesn't_ know. Now Kon just _knows _he's in some kind of Ttwilight Zone. But as far as things that aren't human go, this isn't exactly a bad looking specimen, and hey, it isn't like Kon had ever been picky about such trivial things as _species_.

Too bad she seems more interested in Impulse.

'And you two… know each other,' Robin adds carefully. Their response is a few short nods and a grin.

'We met…' Bart starts.

'…In the speed force,' Sparx finishes. 'If that's what you guys call it, I… well, it was kinda a long time ago, right, Bart?' Then she smiles. 'Yeah, that's it… it's Bart. I remember you telling me now. I _knew_ it.'

'Uh… Imp?' Kon's confused (well, more confused than he already was) because his secret identity has just been blurted out by this… this thing that happens to be shaped convincingly like a woman, and Impulse being impulse, he should probably be having a minor streak out about it.

Except he isn't. He just looks at Sparx and grins and it's really like he _trust's_ her, just like that. 'Thanks, anyway. For saving my life and all.'

...Which would probably be something to do with that. And Kon gets the feeling this is a story he has yet to hear about and he's _not_ going to to hear about anytime soon.

'Thing nothing of it. A Lightning Knight doesn't need thanking… anyway.'

'Oh… so anyway, we're even now, right?'

_Lighting Knight_?

Okay, and that sounded like something _straight_ out of an eighties B-movie. Science fiction. With Meryl Strep or whatever her name was.

Sparx looks at him, and her blue eyes glitter… no, wait, not glitter, Kon realises –_sparked. _Like little lightning bolts. _Like Bart's._ 'Yeah, we're even. Now, what's this about a boom-tube bad guy? Might as well kick some butt while I'm here. You can show me the ropes, cool?'

'Cool!' Bart grins, and by the time Robin has looked up from the console and Kon has managed to think of another word for Impulse which isn't "lucky brat" or "ladies' speedster", the two of them have vanished from the room, and he's not sure which of them was pulling.

Robin sinks a little deeper into his chair.

'Uh... so, Rob. _What_ was all that about?'

* * *

**Crossover with Young Justice, DC Comics. As if you hadn't guessed. **


End file.
